Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1887-11-19

The human intellect out of tune
The judgment wrongly swerved. or the
memory leaky, or the will weak. or the
temper inflammable, and the well bal
anced mind exceptional. Domestic
life out OF tune: Only here and there
a conjugal outbreak of incompatibility
OF temper through the divorce courts,
or a tilial outbreak about a fathers
will through the surrogate's court, or
a case Of wife beating or husband poi
soning through the criminal courts,
but thousands Of families with June
outside and January within.
II OLD PIANO OP SOCIETY.
Society out Of tune: Labor and capt.
tai, their hands on each others throat.
Spirit Of caste keeping those down in
the social scale in a struggle to get up.
and putting those who are up in anx-
iety lest they have to come down. No
wonder the old pianoforte of society is
all out of tune, when hypocrisy, and
lying, and subtersuge, and double deal
ing, and sycophancy, and charlatanien
and revenge have for 5000 years been
banging away at the keys and stamp
ing the pedals.
On all sides there is aperpetual ship
wreck of harmonies. Nations in dis
cord: Without realizing it is so wrong
is the feeling of nation for nation that
the symbols chosen are fierce and de-
structive. In this country, where our
skies are full of robins, and doves, and
morning larks, we have cur national
symbol, the fierce and filthy eagle, as
immoral a bird as can be found in all
the pathological catalogues. In Great
Britain, where they have lambs and
fallow deer, their symbol is the merci-
less lion. 10 Russia, where from be-
tween erfrozen north and blooming
south all kindly beasts dwell, they
choose The growing bear; and in the
worlds heraldry a favorite figure is the
dragon, which is a winged serpent, fe.
rocicus and beautiful. And so fond is
the world of
CONTENTION
that we climb out through the heavens
and baptize. one of the other planets
with the spirit of battle, and call it
Mars, after the god of war, and We
give to the eighth sign of the zodiac
the name OF the scorpion, a creature
which is chiefly celebrated for its dead
ly sting. But, after all, these symbols
are expressive of the way nation feels
toward nation. Discord wide as the
continent and bridging the seas. | sup
pose you have noticed how warmly in
love dry goods stores are with other
dry goods stores and how highl~ gro
cerymen think of the sugars of the gro
cerymen on the same block. And in
what n eulogistic way allopathic and
homeopathic doctors speak of each
other, and how ministers will some
times put ministers on that beautiful
cooking instrument which the English
call q spit, an iron roller with spikes
on it, and turned by a crank before a
hot fire. and then if the minister being
roasted cries out against 1t, the men
who are turning say: Hush, brother!
we are turning this spit for the glory
of God and the good of your soul, and
you must be quiet while we close the
service with:
"Biest be the tie that binds
Our hearts 10 Christian love-"
DIsCORD SHAKES THE EARTH.
The earth is diametered and circum-
ferenced with discord, and the music
that was rendered at the laying of the
worlds cornerstone, when the morn
ing stars sang together, is not heard
NOW; and though here and there, from
this and that part of society, and from
this and that part Of the earth, there
comes up a thrilling colo Of love, or a
MARBLE Of worship, or a duet OF pa
thence, they are drowned out by a dis
cord that shakes the earth.
Paul says: THE whole creation
g%roaneth," and while the nightingale,
and The woodlark, and the canary, and
the plover sometimes sing SO sweetly
that their ootes have been written out
in musical notation, and it is found
that the cuckoo sings in the key of ID,
and that the cormorant is a basso IN
the winged choir, yet sportsman's gun
and the autumnal blast often leave
them ruffied and bleeding, or dead in
meadow or forest. Paul was right, for
the groan in nature browns out the
prima-donnas of the sky.
Tartina, the great musical composer,
dreamed n night that be made con
tract with Satan, the latter to be ever
in the composers service. But one
night he handed to Satan a violin, on
which Diabolus played such sweet mu-
sic that the composer was awakened
by the e1Jotion and tried to reproduce
the sounds, and therefrom was written
Tartini's most famous piece, entitled
the
"DEvIL SONATA"
a dream ingenious but faulty, for all
melody descends from heaven, and
only discords ascend from hell. All
hatreds. feu Is, controversies, backbit-
ings and revenges are the devils soma
tas, are diabolic fugue, are demoniac
p~hantasy, are grand march of doom,
are allegro Of perdition.
But if in this world things in general
are out of tune to our frail ear, how
mnch more Sc to tears angelic and
deifc. 1t takes a skilled artist fully
to appreciate disagreement of sound.
Many have no capacity to detect a
musical execution, and, though there
1880